Councilman Tim McOsker co-authored the wage theft measure that passed City Council on Aug. 12, culminating a three-year process that began on Sept. 1, 2023. As a representative of the Harbor Area with familial labor roots, he’s had a deep commitment to the issue, and shared his thoughts about it for our Labor Day wage theft story. Here we present them in their entirety.
Random Lengths: When did you first become aware of the problem of wage theft and how has your understanding changed since then?
Councilman Tim McOsker: I come from a labor family, so I have been aware of workers’ struggles and rights since my earliest memory. While in law school, my first clerk job was with a labor law firm, and my primary assignment was to research and file claims on mispayments of benefits for union trust funds.
While running for council, combating wage theft was a significant issue on the campaign trail. Having been aware of wage theft for decades, I wanted to bring that experience to the City Council. That’s why I co-introduced a motion to strengthen wage-theft enforcement across Los Angeles.
Wage theft is a systemic economic problem. In some cases, it has become part of the business model because employers believe workers will not know the rules, will be too afraid to report violations, or the consequences will cost less than complying with the law.
RL: Random Lengths first wrote about wage theft related to port truckers, but the problem is far more widespread. What sorts of workers are especially hard hit in LA generally and in the Harbor Area?
McOsker: Wage theft is especially common among low-wage and immigrant workers and in industries where employment is subcontracted, temporary, informal, or difficult to monitor. That includes garment workers, car wash workers, restaurant and hospitality workers, construction and day laborers, and many more.
In the Harbor Area, we have historically seen wage theft throughout the goods-movement economy, particularly among port truck drivers. For example, in 2014, the State Labor Commissioner’s Office examined more than 300 wage-theft claims involving the misclassification of truck drivers, following more than 500 claims filed in 2012 and 2013.
Workers may not be aware of their rights, may face language barriers, may be afraid of retaliation or immigration consequences. That is why enforcement cannot depend only on individual workers navigating a complicated government process by themselves.
RL: In the city council discussion you said, “today’s action, we’ll be stepping in where the state has failed us.” What has the state done, and how, specifically, has it failed?
McOsker: California has some of the strongest labor laws in the country. The failure is not primarily due to a lack of laws. When the state does not have the resources or capacity to provide timely enforcement in a city as large as Los Angeles, we have a responsibility to use our local authority. That is what I meant when I said the city was stepping in where the state had failed us.
RL: What will this set of changes do to address that failure? And what will be needed to ensure success? And what sort of actions will be needed from City Council?
Previously, the Office of Wage Standards primarily enforced specific city laws, including the city’s Minimum Wage Ordinance. With the passage of the motion I introduced, we have directed the City Attorney to prepare ordinances that would broaden the office’s authority to investigate and enforce violations. However, we need both strong policy and the personnel to implement it.
RL: The extent of wage theft in LA is so staggering that two thoughts suggest themselves. First, it seems to reflect a broadly shared cultural ethos. Much like racial and gender discrimination historically, there’s a need for a cultural change. What can be done toward achieving that?
McOsker: Right now, some employers believe the likelihood of being caught is low, that an investigation will take years, or that the eventual penalty will be less than the money they saved by violating the law. As long as that calculation remains true, wage theft will continue to be treated as a cost of doing business.
We should also recognize that most employers want to follow the law. And, a responsible business should not be placed at a disadvantage because another company reduces costs by stealing from its workers.
RL: Second, while this measure treats wage theft in a regulatory framework, wage theft is stealing. It’s a crime. Have you given any thought to criminal enforcement as potential future step, particularly for repeat offenders? Could this help with producing the sort of cultural change just asked about?
The action we adopted is focused principally on strengthening administrative and civil enforcement, recovering money for workers, and improving our ability to collect judgments. Senate Bill 261 also provides an important new civil tool by allowing penalties of up to three times an unpaid final judgment after 180 days.
At the same time, we directed our Chief Legislative Analyst to consult with the City Attorney, LAPD, and other departments and report on additional enforcement mechanisms. That gives us an opportunity to examine what further consequences may be appropriate for intentional, repeated, or organized violations.
RL: Wage theft has been around forever, but it’s only in the last 20, 25 years that people have started to be concerned and started organizing to end it. Who’ve been the primary agents in bringing about that change here in LA? What role do you see for them in the future?
McOsker: Workers themselves deserve the greatest credit. Labor unions, worker centers, legal-aid organizations, researchers, and immigrant-rights groups helped turn individual cases into real action by government. Locally, that includes organizations such as the CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, Garment Worker Center, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, UCLA Labor Center, and many more. And we’ll need these relationships to strengthen our enforcement. Government cannot identify every workplace violation. Trusted organizations can educate workers, identify patterns within an industry, and connect workers with investigators.
RL: While workers are the primary victims of wage theft, they’re not the only ones. It hurts competing businesses who pay workers fairly, it hurts local economies, because those workers have less to spend, and it hurts the government, because they pay less taxes. What can you say about these wider systemic harms, and what it will mean to lessen them?
McOsker: The immediate victim is the worker who cannot pay rent, buy groceries, cover a utility bill, or provide for a family because money they earned was withheld. But the consequences spread throughout the community. It also harms responsible businesses by allowing competitors to gain an unfair advantage through illegal labor practices. It weakens neighborhood economies because workers have less money to spend at local stores and restaurants. When we recover wages, that money goes back to workers and families who will generally spend it in their communities.